Roots of Proto-Celtic/Germanic Mythos, folk faith in prehistoric Swabia? (Part 3)
by Sean Jobst
24 March 2020
There are two final Paleolithic artifacts to discuss in relation to understanding native spiritual traditions of Schwaben and, generally, Celtic and Germanic folk faith in the process. Called such due to its posture of outstretched arms and legs as if in worship, "The Adorant" statue was found in the Geißenklösterle cave near Blaubeuren in 1979. Its dimensions are 38mm (1.50 inch) tall, 14 mm (0.55 inch) wide, and 4.5 mm (0.18 inch) thick. It was carved from mammoth ivory but microscopic analysis uncovered traces of manganese and ochre.(1) One of its most apparent features are the geometric notch rows on the long and short sides and upon the back.(2)
The placement of the incisions parallel across the arms suggests something deeper than the clothing, tattoos or scars that were proposed for the Venus of Hohle Fels.(3) These parallel markings also exist on the Löwenmensch (2,000 years younger than the Adorant), suggesting the same culture that settled in ancient Swabia.(4) A 32,000-year-old relief sculpture found in Stratzing in Lower Austria is also remarkably similar to the Adorant, establishing certain broad features of a common Alpine Paganism we can identify as prehistoric, extending to the Hallstatt Celts, and finally with the South Germanic tribes like the Suebi, Alemanni, Bavarii and Marcomanni.(5)
These Swabian artifacts are not only the oldest known Aurignacian art within Europe, but the oldest figurative art found worldwide to date. "A striking, though still insufficiently studied feature of the figurative art of the Swabian Jura are the numerous markings. Many figurines bear sequences of marks, usually found in the form of parallel lines, crosses and cross-lines, diamonds, V-shaped signs and points."(6) On the left of the raised arms are five notches; 39 notches along the edges; and 48 markings on the back. Scholars as varied as Alexander Marshack, Hansjürgen Müller-Beck, Clive Ruggles and Michel Cotte have each proposed astronomical symbolism behind the Adorant's elaborate array of notches and incisions.
Hunter in the Sky
Prehistoric peoples observed forces of the cosmos that we tend to take for granted nowadays, but appreciated the deeper symbolism enough to encode it within art, wherein they encapsulated its vastness. "Long before astronomy revealed to men the terrifying extent of the great starry spaces, the idea of vastness and of distances to tantalize the mind was already present in heathen thought."(7) A notable example are the bull cave paintings at Lascaux dating back to 15,000 BCE, which Michael Rappenglück of the University of München identified with the constellation Taurus and the Pleiades seven stars. He theorized the Adorant's use as an amulet and as a compass prototype, but more with its posture. "The shape of the anthropomorphic figure (Adorant) resembles the Orion constellation. In other words, the ivory slate from Geißenklösterle would be an example of a specialized tool for controlling the human pregnancy period in relation to the movement of the Orion constellation and the Moon."(8)
The proportions fit the location of Orion 32,000 years ago as astroarchaeology has been able to reconstruct. Indeed, ancient portrayals of Orion personified it as a male figure standing with bent knees. The Greeks were not alone in presenting him as a hunter. The ancient Sumerians viewed Orion as the hunter fighting the Bull that personified Taurus, while ancient Chinese astronomers named him the hunter Shen. Our prehistoric European ancestors seemed to invest it with more elements of fertility - Cosmic forces linked to those of Nature, all relating to reproductive cycles. "Orion was of great significance to the people of the Aurignacian, not just because of the brightness of Syrius, but because it is visible for 9 months of the year from German latitudes, which corresponds to the human gestation period. Thus linking Orion with human births."(9)
The hunter receives the abundance and bounties of the Earth, which itself relies upon the rains and other cosmic forces for its own fertility. Innumerable sources have demonstrated the various Mythos having their role as deeper allegories of Cosmic, Natural and Human Reproductive cycles. These three cycles as well as archetypes of the Psyche, are an important way of "decoding" the Mythos and knowing them to be more "real" than those accustomed more to literalism than allegory. The Moon's connection to female cycles is well-known, so that all the various aspects of the Adorant taken together shows not coincidence but a coherent time-reckoning system of all these cycles, as two scientists expressed in an UNESCO study:
"The grouping of the notches on the plate suggests a timerelated sequence. The total number of notches (88) not only coincides with the number of days in 3 lunations (88.5) but also approximately with the number of days when the star Betelgeuse (Orion) disappeared from view each year between its heliacal set (about 14 days before the spring equinox around 33,000 BP) and its heliacal rise (approximately 19 days before the summer solstice). Conversely, the nine-month period when Orion was visible in the sky approximately matched the duration of human pregnancy, and the timing of the heliacal rise in early summer would have facilitated a ‘rule of thumb’ whereby, by timing conception close to the reappearance of the constellation, it could be ensured that a birth would take place after the severe winter half-year, but leaving enough time for sufficient nutrition of the baby before the beginning of the next winter."(10)
"Cosmic Egg": Metaphysical Powers of Above and Below
24 March 2020
There are two final Paleolithic artifacts to discuss in relation to understanding native spiritual traditions of Schwaben and, generally, Celtic and Germanic folk faith in the process. Called such due to its posture of outstretched arms and legs as if in worship, "The Adorant" statue was found in the Geißenklösterle cave near Blaubeuren in 1979. Its dimensions are 38mm (1.50 inch) tall, 14 mm (0.55 inch) wide, and 4.5 mm (0.18 inch) thick. It was carved from mammoth ivory but microscopic analysis uncovered traces of manganese and ochre.(1) One of its most apparent features are the geometric notch rows on the long and short sides and upon the back.(2)
The placement of the incisions parallel across the arms suggests something deeper than the clothing, tattoos or scars that were proposed for the Venus of Hohle Fels.(3) These parallel markings also exist on the Löwenmensch (2,000 years younger than the Adorant), suggesting the same culture that settled in ancient Swabia.(4) A 32,000-year-old relief sculpture found in Stratzing in Lower Austria is also remarkably similar to the Adorant, establishing certain broad features of a common Alpine Paganism we can identify as prehistoric, extending to the Hallstatt Celts, and finally with the South Germanic tribes like the Suebi, Alemanni, Bavarii and Marcomanni.(5)
These Swabian artifacts are not only the oldest known Aurignacian art within Europe, but the oldest figurative art found worldwide to date. "A striking, though still insufficiently studied feature of the figurative art of the Swabian Jura are the numerous markings. Many figurines bear sequences of marks, usually found in the form of parallel lines, crosses and cross-lines, diamonds, V-shaped signs and points."(6) On the left of the raised arms are five notches; 39 notches along the edges; and 48 markings on the back. Scholars as varied as Alexander Marshack, Hansjürgen Müller-Beck, Clive Ruggles and Michel Cotte have each proposed astronomical symbolism behind the Adorant's elaborate array of notches and incisions.
Hunter in the Sky
Prehistoric peoples observed forces of the cosmos that we tend to take for granted nowadays, but appreciated the deeper symbolism enough to encode it within art, wherein they encapsulated its vastness. "Long before astronomy revealed to men the terrifying extent of the great starry spaces, the idea of vastness and of distances to tantalize the mind was already present in heathen thought."(7) A notable example are the bull cave paintings at Lascaux dating back to 15,000 BCE, which Michael Rappenglück of the University of München identified with the constellation Taurus and the Pleiades seven stars. He theorized the Adorant's use as an amulet and as a compass prototype, but more with its posture. "The shape of the anthropomorphic figure (Adorant) resembles the Orion constellation. In other words, the ivory slate from Geißenklösterle would be an example of a specialized tool for controlling the human pregnancy period in relation to the movement of the Orion constellation and the Moon."(8)
The proportions fit the location of Orion 32,000 years ago as astroarchaeology has been able to reconstruct. Indeed, ancient portrayals of Orion personified it as a male figure standing with bent knees. The Greeks were not alone in presenting him as a hunter. The ancient Sumerians viewed Orion as the hunter fighting the Bull that personified Taurus, while ancient Chinese astronomers named him the hunter Shen. Our prehistoric European ancestors seemed to invest it with more elements of fertility - Cosmic forces linked to those of Nature, all relating to reproductive cycles. "Orion was of great significance to the people of the Aurignacian, not just because of the brightness of Syrius, but because it is visible for 9 months of the year from German latitudes, which corresponds to the human gestation period. Thus linking Orion with human births."(9)
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The hunter receives the abundance and bounties of the Earth, which itself relies upon the rains and other cosmic forces for its own fertility. Innumerable sources have demonstrated the various Mythos having their role as deeper allegories of Cosmic, Natural and Human Reproductive cycles. These three cycles as well as archetypes of the Psyche, are an important way of "decoding" the Mythos and knowing them to be more "real" than those accustomed more to literalism than allegory. The Moon's connection to female cycles is well-known, so that all the various aspects of the Adorant taken together shows not coincidence but a coherent time-reckoning system of all these cycles, as two scientists expressed in an UNESCO study:
"The grouping of the notches on the plate suggests a timerelated sequence. The total number of notches (88) not only coincides with the number of days in 3 lunations (88.5) but also approximately with the number of days when the star Betelgeuse (Orion) disappeared from view each year between its heliacal set (about 14 days before the spring equinox around 33,000 BP) and its heliacal rise (approximately 19 days before the summer solstice). Conversely, the nine-month period when Orion was visible in the sky approximately matched the duration of human pregnancy, and the timing of the heliacal rise in early summer would have facilitated a ‘rule of thumb’ whereby, by timing conception close to the reappearance of the constellation, it could be ensured that a birth would take place after the severe winter half-year, but leaving enough time for sufficient nutrition of the baby before the beginning of the next winter."(10)
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These two Surrealist paintings, the first by Wojtek Siudmak
and the second by Vladimir Kush, both inspired by my
favorite artist Salvador Dalí, perfectly convey the symbolic
interplay of Cosmic and Earth energies through our birth.
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"Cosmic Egg": Metaphysical Powers of Above and Below
That the Earth and Cosmos were joined through the human being was also conveyed in the "Cosmic Egg", a common motif in Indo-European cultures whereby a primordial being came into existence by "hatching" from an "egg" the cosmos laid upon the Earth's primordial waters.(11) This concept is to be understood as allegorical, more about the primordial forces within the universe than an actual "creation" myth as conceived by the Abrahamics. This motif was conveyed in such mythologies as the Vedic "egg-shaped cosmos" and the Greek "Orphic Egg". As for Orion, its significant that many Indo-European languages had the same symbolism.(12) Placing the origin of the Vedas with Orion's most ancient position, the Hindu astrologer and teacher Bal Gangadhar Tilak also examined the Germanic Yuletide season extending across the end of one year and beginning of the next year, to express his "opinion that the German traditions are the reminiscences of a time when the vernal equinox was in Orion, the hunter."(13)
In contrast to the "cosmic egg" symbolism, our Celtic and Germanic ancestors tended to see fire and water as the primordial elements - ice replaced this same function of water within the Norse mythos. Water symbolic of the beginning and fire of the end: We are born from the watery uterus and the fire released us from this earthly existence as cremation was our original tradition. This likewise extended into symbolism of the "fire" radiating from the Sun then fertilizing the "water" emanating from within the Earth.(14) This purifying "fire" aspect of the Sun - but not the Sun itself - was later conveyed in the Danubian Celtic myths of Grannus, various continental Celtic figures related to Bellenos, and the Germanic myth of the shining god Balder. All these further relate to the seasons.
A Lunisolar Worldview
A Lunisolar Worldview
Another cosmic symbolism with the Adorant is the lunar and solar aspect. Scholars have noted the figure's edges are cut at equal intervals, with the number 13 repeated frequently. They conclude this is a record of the relationship of the Sun and Moon, with 13 lunar months equal to one solar year. This relationship was known to Paleolithic hunters whose nomadic way of life was subject to basic changes in Nature. During a year when the Sun returned to the same point on the horizon, the Moon already made 13 full cycles - four for each lunar phase from one full-moon to another. The Adorant's four rows of dimples can also be connected to the four lunar phases of full moon-waxing-waning-full moon.(15) These recurring numbers can be seen as 13 x 4 = 52, which happens to be the number of weeks within the solar year. It takes 354 days to complete 12 lunar cycles, but 365 days for the Earth to orbit the Sun, so that special reckonings were made to account for the 11 day difference (called the "epact") in the two. The Ancients knew that lunar and solar cycles were synchronized every 18 years.
Indeed this ancient lunisolar joining of solar and lunar cycles (also seen on such artifacts as the Greek antikythera mechanism etc.) later formed the basis of Celtic and Germanic calendars. This is contrary to the fixed solar festivals around the equinoxes and solstices that form the basis of such modern "neo-paganisms" as Wicca, Asatru or "Druidry", whose "Wheel of the Year" and its various "sabbats" (a Hebrew phrase having nothing to do with European languages) are not attested in any historical sources documenting actual Celtic or Germanic traditions. Rather, its founded upon the imperial Roman calendar that was Christianized and imposed upon our Ancestors to eradicate their lunisolar worldview that was an impediment to monotheistic, centralist control and thought systems. Its worth detailing both calendars to show just how continuous our traditions have been from the Prehistoric.
The Germanic Heathen calendar was well attested in many contemporary sources(16), that attested to celebrations or other auspicious times reckoned by full or new moons, not fixed around solar events; time was reckoned by nights not days. The two halves of the year - Summer and Winter - were further divided into four quarters based on full moons with three moons assigned to each season. Summer had seven and not six moons every lunar leap year which occurred every three lunar years, so to keep alignment every three years an extra moon or month was added to Summer. This ensured that the second Yule month did not start before the Winter Solstice. The Spring festival Ostara did not occur on the Vernal Equinox (and was purely Continental, not celebrated by the Norse) but on the first full moon after. Midsummer was a quarter-year marker and not actually celebrated. Yule was on the first full moon after the first new moon after the Solstice, or three full moons after Winter Nights (itself the first full moon after the Autumn Equinox) - hence usually sometime in January. It was a three-day festival and not a Christianized "12 Days" replacement for "Christmas".(17)
The Germanic Heathen calendar was well attested in many contemporary sources(16), that attested to celebrations or other auspicious times reckoned by full or new moons, not fixed around solar events; time was reckoned by nights not days. The two halves of the year - Summer and Winter - were further divided into four quarters based on full moons with three moons assigned to each season. Summer had seven and not six moons every lunar leap year which occurred every three lunar years, so to keep alignment every three years an extra moon or month was added to Summer. This ensured that the second Yule month did not start before the Winter Solstice. The Spring festival Ostara did not occur on the Vernal Equinox (and was purely Continental, not celebrated by the Norse) but on the first full moon after. Midsummer was a quarter-year marker and not actually celebrated. Yule was on the first full moon after the first new moon after the Solstice, or three full moons after Winter Nights (itself the first full moon after the Autumn Equinox) - hence usually sometime in January. It was a three-day festival and not a Christianized "12 Days" replacement for "Christmas".(17)
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Like the Adorant, the Gaullish Coligny bronze
calendar has holes for small wooden pegs to be
placed in to finely tune a synchronization of
solar and lunar cycles every 19 years
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The Celtic Coligny calendar was created in Gaul between 40BCE and 100CE at a time when the Romans were genociding the Druids, who preserved this living testament to their advanced knowledge. There are 12 lunar months, each comprising six weeks or 29-30 days, extending from Samonios (October-November) to Cantios (September-October). To synchronize with the solar year, a 13th intercalary month known as Sonnocingos was added every 2.5 years and alternated between being inserted before Samonios or before the Spring months of Cutios and Giamonios. After a five-year cycle, two months were added. Each month was divided into halves, one "light" and one "dark", with the second half being an atenoux "renewal". Just as the day began with night (as with the Germanic), so too did the year begin with the descent into "darkness" of Winter. The entire calendar cycle was 30 years, totaling six rotations around the cycle.(18)
Although often known as priests, the Druids had advanced knowledge of astrology, astronomy, folk medicine, and divination. In many areas of the Celtic world they were associated with upholding the tribal laws. The Romans noted their intricate awareness of lunar phases. Julius Caesar noted the 19 years following the Druid's first year as a novice, directly corresponding to the entire lunar cycle. To be worthy of the title Druid, one had to study for 20 years - which could thus relate to the beginning of a new lunar cycle after completion of the 19-year-cycle. Aside from the common lunisolar worldview, divination methods of the continental Germanic tribes as observed by Caesar and Tacitus were also similar to those of the Druids; as was the veneration of the Oak.
To be continued in the fourth and final part....
FOOTNOTES:
(1) Joachim Hahn, "Eine aurignacienzeitliche Menschendarstellung aus dem Geißenklösterle bei Blaubeuren, Alb-Donau-Kreis," in Denkmalpflege in Baden-Württemberg – Nachrichtenblatt der Landesdenkmalpflege, Vol. 9, No. 2, 1980, pp. 56-58.
(2) Gerd Albrecht and Hansjürgen Müller-Beck, eds., Die Anfänge der Kunst vor 30000 Jahren, Stuttgart: Theiss, 1987, p. 75.
(3) Luc Renaut, "What to Make of the Prehistory of Tattooing in Europe?," in Ancient Ink: The Archaeology of Tattooing, eds. Lars Krutak and Aaron Deter-Wolf, Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2017, p. 252.
(4) Genevieve von Petzinger, The First Signs: Unlocking the Mysteries of the World's Oldest Symbols, New York: Atria Paperback, 2017, pp. 90-91.
(5) With common features such as the Maibaum (May Pole), Summer bonfires and sacred rites involving fire, the Winter processions associated with the goddess Perchta or Frau Holle/Holda, common traditions involving the Wild Hunt, etc.. Folklore and traditions surviving long after conversion that indicate a continuity from ancient times. The great Austrian scholar Guido von List even placed the Germanic urheimat (primeval homeland) within the Danubian regions of Austria, Bavaria and Swabia rather than far to the north.
(6) Ewa Dutkiewicz, "The Vogelherd Cave and the discovery of the earliest art - history, critics and new questions," in Human Origin Sites and the World Heritage Convention in Eurasia, Volume II, ed. Nuria Sanz, Paris/Mexico City: UNESCO, 2015, p. 81.
(7) Hilda R.E. Davidson, Gods and Myths of Northern Europe, Harmondsworth, England: Penguin Books, 1964.
(8) Aleksander Dzbynski, The Power of the Line: Metaphor, Number and Material Culture in European Prehistory, Newcastle upon Tyne, England: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2013, p. 19.
(9) Neil Harrison, The Origins of Europeans and Their Pre-Historic Inventiveness From 6 Million to 10,000 BCE, New York: Algora Publishing, 2019, p. 171.
(10) Clive Ruggles and Michel Cotte, Heritage Sites of Astronomy and Archaeoastronomy in the context of the UNESCO World Heritage Convention: A Thematic Study, Paris: ICOMOS/International Astronomical Union, 2010, p. 19.
(11) Anna‐Britta Hellborn, "The creation egg," Ethnos: Journal of Anthropology, No. 1, 1963, pp. 63-105.
(12) K.S. Krishnan, Origin of Vedas, Chennai, India: Notion Press, 2019.
(13) Bal Gangadhar Tilak, The Orion, Or, Researches into the Antiquity of the Vedas, Bombay: Mrs. Rádhábái Átmárám Sagoon, 1893, p. 142.
(14) Wolf-Dieter Storl, The Untold History of Healing: Plant Lore and Medicinal Magic from the Stone Age to Present, Berkeley, CA: North Atlantic Books, 2017, pp. 36, 42.
(15) Hansjürgen Müller-Beck, Die Steinzeit: der Weg der Menschen in die Geschichte, München: Verlag C.H. Beck, 2001, pp. 66-68.
(16) Tacitus, Germania, circa 98CE, Chapter 11; Bede, De Temporum Ratione, 725CE, Chapter 15; and Einhard, Vita Karoli Magni, circa 817-833CE, Chapter 29. From these and other historical sources, we can reconstruct an actual Continental Heathen calendar.
(17) I am indebted to the work of the Chicago-based Saxon reconstructionist Heathen Robert Sass, whose website Aldsidu.com is an essential source for Continental Heathens; and the Swedish scholar Dr. Andreas Nordberg's work on the historic Norse calendar: Jul, disting och förkyrklig tideräkning: Kalendrar och Kalendariska riter i det förkristna Norden (Uppsala: Kungl Gustav Adolfs Akademien för Svensk folkkultur, 2006).
(18) For the Coligny calendar and Druidic astrology in general, I recommend the work of the Quebecois Celtic Pagan Michel-Gérald Boutet.
To be continued in the fourth and final part....
FOOTNOTES:
(1) Joachim Hahn, "Eine aurignacienzeitliche Menschendarstellung aus dem Geißenklösterle bei Blaubeuren, Alb-Donau-Kreis," in Denkmalpflege in Baden-Württemberg – Nachrichtenblatt der Landesdenkmalpflege, Vol. 9, No. 2, 1980, pp. 56-58.
(2) Gerd Albrecht and Hansjürgen Müller-Beck, eds., Die Anfänge der Kunst vor 30000 Jahren, Stuttgart: Theiss, 1987, p. 75.
(3) Luc Renaut, "What to Make of the Prehistory of Tattooing in Europe?," in Ancient Ink: The Archaeology of Tattooing, eds. Lars Krutak and Aaron Deter-Wolf, Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2017, p. 252.
(4) Genevieve von Petzinger, The First Signs: Unlocking the Mysteries of the World's Oldest Symbols, New York: Atria Paperback, 2017, pp. 90-91.
(5) With common features such as the Maibaum (May Pole), Summer bonfires and sacred rites involving fire, the Winter processions associated with the goddess Perchta or Frau Holle/Holda, common traditions involving the Wild Hunt, etc.. Folklore and traditions surviving long after conversion that indicate a continuity from ancient times. The great Austrian scholar Guido von List even placed the Germanic urheimat (primeval homeland) within the Danubian regions of Austria, Bavaria and Swabia rather than far to the north.
(6) Ewa Dutkiewicz, "The Vogelherd Cave and the discovery of the earliest art - history, critics and new questions," in Human Origin Sites and the World Heritage Convention in Eurasia, Volume II, ed. Nuria Sanz, Paris/Mexico City: UNESCO, 2015, p. 81.
(7) Hilda R.E. Davidson, Gods and Myths of Northern Europe, Harmondsworth, England: Penguin Books, 1964.
(8) Aleksander Dzbynski, The Power of the Line: Metaphor, Number and Material Culture in European Prehistory, Newcastle upon Tyne, England: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2013, p. 19.
(9) Neil Harrison, The Origins of Europeans and Their Pre-Historic Inventiveness From 6 Million to 10,000 BCE, New York: Algora Publishing, 2019, p. 171.
(10) Clive Ruggles and Michel Cotte, Heritage Sites of Astronomy and Archaeoastronomy in the context of the UNESCO World Heritage Convention: A Thematic Study, Paris: ICOMOS/International Astronomical Union, 2010, p. 19.
(11) Anna‐Britta Hellborn, "The creation egg," Ethnos: Journal of Anthropology, No. 1, 1963, pp. 63-105.
(12) K.S. Krishnan, Origin of Vedas, Chennai, India: Notion Press, 2019.
(13) Bal Gangadhar Tilak, The Orion, Or, Researches into the Antiquity of the Vedas, Bombay: Mrs. Rádhábái Átmárám Sagoon, 1893, p. 142.
(14) Wolf-Dieter Storl, The Untold History of Healing: Plant Lore and Medicinal Magic from the Stone Age to Present, Berkeley, CA: North Atlantic Books, 2017, pp. 36, 42.
(15) Hansjürgen Müller-Beck, Die Steinzeit: der Weg der Menschen in die Geschichte, München: Verlag C.H. Beck, 2001, pp. 66-68.
(16) Tacitus, Germania, circa 98CE, Chapter 11; Bede, De Temporum Ratione, 725CE, Chapter 15; and Einhard, Vita Karoli Magni, circa 817-833CE, Chapter 29. From these and other historical sources, we can reconstruct an actual Continental Heathen calendar.
(17) I am indebted to the work of the Chicago-based Saxon reconstructionist Heathen Robert Sass, whose website Aldsidu.com is an essential source for Continental Heathens; and the Swedish scholar Dr. Andreas Nordberg's work on the historic Norse calendar: Jul, disting och förkyrklig tideräkning: Kalendrar och Kalendariska riter i det förkristna Norden (Uppsala: Kungl Gustav Adolfs Akademien för Svensk folkkultur, 2006).
(18) For the Coligny calendar and Druidic astrology in general, I recommend the work of the Quebecois Celtic Pagan Michel-Gérald Boutet.
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